The basic premise is that people are staring at their phones too much and missing out on their lives. The Windows 7 phone is supposed to remedy this problem because it's interface allows people to do things faster.
The slogon is "Designed to get you in, and out, and back to life"
Although the campaign is very cute I think it misses the point entirely.
Watching a commercial where people are mindlessly staring into their phones and ignoring what's going on around them doesn't make me want a faster phone. It just turns me off to smartphones in general.
The reason it does that is because people aren't staring into their phones constantly because current phones are too slow. The are staring into their phones because they think that information is more interesting that their actual lives.
For example, although there are some obviously humorous scenes (checking a phone on a roller coaster) there are several other very real scenes (people on their phones while at dinner, parents on their phones instead of playing with their kids). Any parent who is checking email, facebook or twitter during those activities isn't doing that because there phone isn't fast enough. There are just bad parents. Having a different interface isn't going to change that.
The big spot for Windows 7 phones ends with a young couple at a nice restaurant having a candle-lit dinner of lobster. Apparently by letting you access information quickly it means you can enjoy dinner with your significant other like a normal human being.
But this doesn't make sense. If you don't have the common sense to put your phone away during a formal dinner having a different phone isn't going to change that. There is nothing important enough to check on that you need phone while at dinner, so how is a different interface going to change that. If you're looking at meaningless information and can't stand to be unplugged for a few hours a different phone won't change at either.
And you if you look at the end of the spot the cell phone is on the table! With the text "Be here now".
Thank god the Windows 7 phone can give this guy really fast twitter and facebook updates so there is more time in between for the woman he's on a date with.
According to the Microsoft press release:
"as a society we’re spending more time heads-down with our phones than we are interacting with the people we’re sitting right in front of."
This is a social issues not a phone issue. People are making the choice to use their phones rather than interacting with people around them.
I used to do this and it wasn't because my phone's interface was bad. I did it because I felt that it was more interesting that what was going on around me. I did it because I craved that constantly stimulation.
Rarely did I have anything I really need to do. If I had lost my phone nothing would be materially different. But I had time with nothing going on and I would check the news, check the market, etc... and use it kill time.
Microsoft's campaign is like saying smoking is problem, therefore we plan to solve this problem by selling cigarettes in a different package.
0 comments:
Post a Comment